Nyirenda Moffat

Elected: 2018

Country (Nationality)

Malawi

Discipline

Medical & Health Sciences

Bio

Moffat Nyirenda is a Diabetologist/Endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine (Global Non-Communicable Diseases) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), and leads the non-communicable disease (NCD) research theme at MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research.

Moffat was among the first graduates from the College of Medicine in Malawi, with “hybrid” training between University College London and University of Malawi. He subsequently trained and worked at the University of Edinburgh, supported by a prestigious MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship award. In 2010 Moffat returned to Malawi where he was Professor of Research at the College of Medicine and Associate Director of Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, before taking up his current position at LSHTM in August 2013. Moffat’s research interests lie in mechanistic understanding of the aetiology of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including i) investigating the association between early environmental insults and the risk of obesity, diabetes and hypertension in adulthood; ii) using cross-cutting approaches to examine the interactions between infection and NCDs; iii) contributing to genomics studies of NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa. Moffat has particular interest in research capacity building in Africa, and is Director of the Southern Africa Consortium for Research Excellence (SACORE), funded through the Wellcome Trust’s African Institutions Initiative, which aims to establish a vibrant research culture in medical schools in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.